Posted on August 05, 2016 by Jenny Cromack

 

I read an article last week that houmous and guacamole are unhealthy as crisps. The study showed that some types of humous and guacamole contained more salt than four packets of crisps and the fat content was more than a McDonald’s Big Mac.

Now, don’t get me wrong a lot of houmous and guacamole options do have a lot of rubbish added to them to improve taste and shelf life. But to put them on par with crisps is a bit misleading in our opinion! For starters surely you need to consider where that fat is coming from!

High salt is definitely something you want to be avoiding but if something is high fat then that isn’t always necessarily a bad thing. If you’re clued up you’ll know that you need to look at what type of fat it is. If the saturated fat levels are high avoid it like the plague. So if you compared good quality or home made humous to crisps, we think crisps would come out trumps with having the highest saturated fat content. Still fair to compare what most would class as a healthy snack to crisps?!

Eating good quality sources of fats has a large number of healthy benefits such as increased health and improved body composition to read more about the benefits of good fats in your diet click.

The key when your shopping is to read the labels to ensure that the product is a healthy choice. If ever your not sure contact one of the motive8 team we will be happy to offer some advice.

Here are some healthy guacamole and houmous recipes that you can bulk make and use for snacks or dinner parties with veggie sticks!

Guacamole Dip

Ingredients
• 2 ripe avocados
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• small bunch of coriander finely chopped
• small red onion, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp organic olive oil

Method
1. Peel and mush up the avocado but make sure it still has some firmness and texture.
2. Add all the ingredients to the bowl and stir in.
3. Serve soon after making.

Houmous

Ingredients
• 400g cans chickpeas in water, drained
• 1 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tbsp Greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp tahini paste
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• sprinkle paprika
• water

1. Put the chickpeas, garlic, yoghurt, tahini, paprika and olive oil into a food processor

2. Whizz everything together until smooth. If you find the mixture is not the right consistency add a small amount of water and whizz again. Keep repeating until you are happy with the consistency. everything but the coriander into a food processor, then whizz to a fairly smooth mix.

4. Alternatives are to add fresh coriander and lemon juice or roasted peppers.